Semester 2 Material experimentation

For my personal project one thing I really want to try is hand painted cel animation. As this has the potential to become quite costly I've started experimenting with different materials and methods and planning out the logistics of cel animation/what would be feasible to do. One of the biggest obstacles is cost, as cel animation could already be costly back when materials were widely used and manufactured on a larger scale. Now almost none of the materials used for cel animation are still in production, or have an inflated price tag. To buy artist grade acetate animation cels will cost around $75USD ($104.15 NZD) for 100 (https://www.cartoonsupplies.com/content/10f-blank-acetate-cels).

Animation Cel from Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)

I have done previous animation cel copies on both glass and Perspex, however both of those methods are also quite costly, with glass being very hard to store, so while that method works for single cel paintings I don't believe it will be a viable option for multiple frames. Perspex etching sheets are another material I have used, however they are also costly at $28 for a 10 pack of A5 sheets (OfficeMax) and wouldn't work for a large production. One last idea I had for the cels was plastic projector sheets, as these are very similar to the acetate cels, and are sold in bulk lots for much cheaper ($27.59 for 100 A4 / Office max), and can be printed on with a printer, which would also solve the lineart issue of having to go over the artwork twice to build up the ink. I also wouldn't need a full A4 sheet for one frame, I think I could get away with 4 frames per sheet, making the cost very low in comparison. I haven't had a chance to experiment with this material yet however I believe that it will work.  

In terms of paint, cel vinyl paint, gouache or acrylic paint were traditionally used, as acrylic is the easiest to get a hold of, dries quickly and I have experience with it I am planning on using this for the paint aspect of the project. A close duplicate to Cel vinyl paint is Holbein's Acryla Gouache, however at $30 for 20mls that prices is too steep for what I want to do. Cartoon colour cel vinyl paint is no longer produced. The only issue I can foresee running into while using acrylic is the fact that sometimes when it dries it can tend to bead. I think this can be resolved by using more paint, however this might add to drying times. if I have a hair dryer I should be able to peed up the drying process if it doesn't warp the sheets. I could also work on painting other cels layers while I wait for it to dry naturally 

http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2017/10/using-cel-vinyl-paint.html

Traditional Cel animation 
-Acetate cels
-Ink
-Cel paint  

Imitation Cel
-Perspex sheets 
-Glass
-Projector sheets? 

-Acrylic paint 
-Fine point sharpie
-Paint Pens

Original frame drawings

I wanted to try a simple head turn with mostly key frames to get a good handle on how I would paint the cels consistently without using up too many more costly materials. for this test I used half of an A5 Perspex inking sheet left over from a previous painting. Because of this I painted the keyframes on the same cel, which I will separate later in Clip studio paint once they have been photographed

Flipped frame drawings and Cel outlines 
I traced the previous drawings through the paper using a lightbox so the ink lines would be flipped back from the side the cel is viewed from.
Outlines created through 2 layers of fine tip sharpie 
Cel created with half sheet of A5 Perspex sheet 

One of the most time consuming process is the lineart aspect since with a sharpie it has to be gone over twice so there is no translucence. I think this could be solved through using Projector sheets as the lineart can be printed onto the plastic. for this to work I would do the animation and lineart in toon boom harmony, export the lineart, print them, paint the cels, and scan them back into the computer or photograph 

Cel outlines

To get these I lined the Perspex up over the flipped sketch and taped down the corners. once I had traced the outlines I removed the tape and put the Perspex over a blank sheet of paper, and went over the lines as they were slightly translucent from only one lot of inking. once all of the patchy lines had been doubled over I gave the ink a few minutes to dry before I started the painting process, as I didn't want the ink to bleed into the paint. 

Acrylic paint

for the painting process I started of painting the smaller details such as the teeth, eye whites, collar and tie. I wanted to paint all of the colours that were the same at the same time so when it dried it would look consistent across all the frames. once these were dry I started painting the larger hair and shirt sections. once the previously painted areas were dry I could paint over top so no gas of lines could be seen between the different colours from the front side 

Cels viewed front front (-skin tone)

This was the progress I managed to make, I had wanted to add skin tone  however it was quite cold and was slow to dry so I stopped here for he night. 

Previous Cel Paintings
First Attempt

Fine tip Sharpie on Perspex

Acrylic Paint from back 

Finished cel

In this cell I didn't fully wait for the different paint colours to dry in-between so the lines and shades weren't quite as sharp. the colours I mixed also didn't quite contrast as much as in the reference however overall I was happy at my first attempt. 

Second Attempt

Fine tip sharpie on Perspex. White acrylic paint for Highlights

Acrylic paint Work in Progress

Finished Cel
I was much happier with the colour match of this painting and I think giving the paint time to dry between layers definitely helped the painting feel more crisp. I did end up losing the blue highlights on the shirt however, so I think swatching the colours and seeing what they look like dry would be beneficial if working on a larger scale.  

Attempt 3

Fine tip Sharpie and Acrylic on Glass

For this attempt the paint went down much nicer and the lineart also felt much more crisp. I think the result is much nicer however storing glass will take up space and require a lot of care to not break them. I was also very happy with the color matching with this painting, and I think the practice from the first 2 attempts definitely helped me create a better painting this time.